Jerry Nadler: “I am prepared to close if the other side is, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, in spite of the…”

“I am prepared to close if the other side is, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, in spite of the good intentions of this bill, I believe the restrictions in the incentive system it would create with respect to recidivism reduction programming could compound the injustices that occur at earlier stages of the criminal justice process; that its approval would lessen the odds of achieving sentencing reform; and that, on balance, the negatives outweigh the positives of this bill. A broad spectrum of dozens of civil rights and other organizations agree and oppose this bill, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the ACLU, the NAACP, the NAACP Legal and Education Defense Fund, the American Federation of Federal Government Employees Council of Prison Locals, the National Immigration Law Center, and Human Rights Watch. For the reasons I have outlined today, I reluctantly oppose H.R. 5682 and ask that my colleagues do the same. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”